FINTECH - What an investment return!16 Jan 2026 10:20
Https://www.ft.com/content/97e6f29e-bc79-43e0-bcbd-2dfe98755ea3
Billions from a million: the London VC that hit the jackpot with Revolut
Balderton Capital led $75bn fintech’s first funding round and retains substantial stake even after cashing out $2bn
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https://www.ft.com/content/97e6f29e-bc79-43e0-bcbd-2dfe98755ea3
Ivan Levingston and Tim Bradshaw
PublishedJAN 13 2026
UpdatedJAN 13 2026, 10:37
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Balderton Capital has cashed out roughly $2bn of its Revolut stake over the past year, cementing its early £1mn investment in the fintech as one of the most lucrative bets in European venture history and capping an exceptional year for the London firm.
The stock sales include $1bn worth that people familiar with the matter say was announced at Balderton’s annual meeting in November, as well as other deals earlier in the year.
They come as Revolut sits at a $75bn valuation and edges towards a public listing that could come as early as this year.
Revolut, founded and led by Nikolay Storonsky, has been by far the best deal in Balderton’s 25-year history — a period in which it has raised a total of $5.7bn to invest.
The firm’s fifth fund, in which the UK neobank holding sits, has returned the initial $305mn raised from investors more than 25 times over, according to people familiar with the matter, and retains a significant chunk of its previous stake of more than 10 per cent.
“The best companies keep unlocking new opportunities and we knew with Revolut that Storonsky was an entrepreneur who was going to do just that,” said Daniel Waterhouse, a Balderton partner who sat on Revolut’s board for several years. “He had the capacity to take this in many different places.”
Balderton’s Revolut windfall, which has offered its institutional investors some much-needed cash returns, has been reinforced by a flurry of positive news elsewhere in its portfolio, from energy group Fuse reaching a $5bn valuation in December to fintech GoCardless’s $1.1bn sale last month.
Other recent successes include UK autonomous driving group Wayve, which is in talks to raise up to $2bn in a funding round, and German spy drone maker Quantum Systems, which has tripled its valuation to €3bn since Balderton first invested in May.
Balderton last year secured another windfall as it joined fellow VC backers of Turkey’s Dream Games, maker of the popular mobile app Royal Match, in selling a stake to private
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